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tea
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2020-04-07
Rediscovering the tastes of my childhood
Some of my earliest memories are of the sights, sounds, and tastes of my grandmother’s kitchen. She passed away almost exactly one year before the stay-at-home order was put in place in Washington State. At that time, I was already an online student working from home and my partner was driving across the state every weekend to work and come back home. When lockdown started, I didn’t realize how cooped up I would feel. I decided I needed to revisit the feelings of my grandmother’s kitchen. Around the same time, my family got a trailer full of boxes of my grandmother’s things. In this box was a handwritten cookbook filled with the recipes and stories from my childhood. There were handwritten letters from my great-grandfather to my grandmother, recipes she had clipped out of newspapers in the 1970s and 1980s, and family recipes I thought were lost when she passed. One of which was a Spiced tea, also known as friendship tea, recipe. For me, this tea is the epitome of Christmas time spent with my grandma. This recipe exists on the internet, but it was never as good as the one my grandmother made. When I found these recipes, I set out on cooking my way through them to pass my time during lockdown. My partner was working remotely so he was home to try them with me. It was an emotional experience for me after the loss of my grandmother and it reminded me how much food can bring people together. This recipe no longer represents Christmas and my grandmother, it now is something that makes me think of lockdown with my own family and how it brought us together. If it wasn’t for the stay-at-home order, I probably wouldn’t have connected to these recipes again and I definitely would never have had to buy tang. The pandemic has brought a greater connection to history and sensory history. The pandemic has also changed the way we experience our senses and even changed those senses for some people. Sensory history shows how people experienced the world around them during the pandemic. If you try this recipe, don’t be afraid of adding more or less of what you like. I don’t know what measurement a scoop is, but as my grandmother always told me, we don’t measure to be perfect we measure with our hearts. My best guess is that there are about 2 tablespoons in a “scoop”. Ginther’s Spice Tea 1 ½ cup Tang 6 scoops lemonade ½ cup instant tea ½ cup sugar ½ teaspoon cloves (or fresh whole cloves) 1 tablespoon cinnamon (or fresh sticks) Combine the above ingredients. Add 2 Tablespoons of mix per cup of hot water. -
2021-04-15
Going Wild
I know the vaccine isn’t a golden ticket. I know you can still contract COVID. I know we don’t really know yet if a vaccinated person can spread it (which is why my kids are still on Distance Learning). And I know there are at least 30 countries where not one person has been vaccinated. I do know all of this. However, somewhere in my subconscious I am relaxing. I have not had a boba from 85 Degrees in 13 months and though my husband did bring home a Starbucks for me recently, that was pretty much it for the past year. Today, I somehow ended up with both. During our lunch walk, my bestie asked if I wanted to walk to Starbucks. We haven’t done that in over a year and I have to be honest, it felt amazing. Even though while we walked there, we said snarky stuff like “remember how we’re in a worldwide pandemic?” it still felt sort of normal. Then, my husband decided to pick up bread on the way home from 85 Degree and brought me a grapefruit tea with lychee jelly. My tastebuds are so happy and I’m barely asking myself if the person who made the drink has COVID. So I must be relaxing. Then again, I sprayed my boba cup with Lysol before touching it and dumped my Starbucks into a mug and reheated it before I drank it, soooo maybe not. -
2021-01-25
My Covid-19 Reflection
I caught COVID-19 in January 2021 after being around a family member who was positive. The trail of transmission could’ve been my aunt to my cousins to my mother then to me and my brother but it is still unclear. I firstly got a headache one night then went to bed. I woke and felt my throat feeling tight and dry and had a very bad headache, with congestion, fever and body aches/pain all over. I did not want to eat, just wanted to stay in bed and sleep. It was very difficult because it was also my brother and mother who were sick with the virus as well. I tried to make as many herbal remedies as possible for me and my family. I made teas that helped expel mucus from the lungs and throat as well as garlic, honey, elderberry, zinc and vitamin C, B-12 & D. The first two days that I was sick, my fever was over 100 degrees and I had to take Ibuprofen. To help with my body pains I tried to stay out of the bed and keep my body moving. I lost a lot of weight from not eating as much and my body working hard and using energy to recover. What was very interesting about this experience was that I would feel empty even after I ate food. This strange feeling lasted few days after my COVID symptoms were over. It was discouraging because I got my regular appetite back and could not smell or taste at 100%. Everything tasted very plain no matter the amount of flavor. During this experience I was not very worried. I just knew I would get better quickly and remained positive. -
2020-12-01
Tea Time Together
I am very close with my mom, and used to regularly visit my grandmother, but I moved across the country right before Covid-19 and was unable to visit this year. I was feeling extremely homesick during the fall, as my grandmother and I have birthdays near each other and usually celebrate together but we were unable to do so this year. While my grandmother and I did send letters and cards to each other and I facetime with my mom fairly often, I was still experiencing a feeling of loss and a lack of connection. To bring us together, my mom proposed that the three of us all use the same tea advent calendar to celebrate the holidays. We all got the same mug, the same tea set, and spent the month of December enjoying tea from three different places, which allowed us to feel a sense of togetherness, even when we are apart. -
2021-01-14
At-Home Office Hacks
While I am not currently working from home, I am studying from home and staying home as much as I possibly can, which can feel extremely stifling. I would sit at my small desk in my bedroom for hours at a time, longing for the setting of a library or cafe to do my work in, and would soon grow bored and unfocused, failing at being productive. After a week or two of some distracted study sessions in which it felt like I got nothing done, I was fed up and frustrated, so I decided to try out a few changes to refresh my study space. Here are my hacks to creating a comfortable study-from-home (or work-from-home!) space without investing in new furniture or risking exposure to Covid-19. 1) Move your desk. My previous desk location blocked my window, leading my little office area to feel dark and closed off. By moving my desk, I now sit adjacent to the window. This allows more natural light to shine, raising my mood, and it allows me to people watch when I need a break from staring at my screen all day. 2) Clean your workspace. I am definitely guilty of having a cluttered, messy workspace, with papers all over my desk and books all over the floor. I recently reorganized so only the absolute essentials were in my workspace, and it feels so streamlined. It really is true that a cluttered space leads to a cluttered mind, and clearing it out has given me more mental clarity when working. 3) Go outside! I don't have a huge backyard, but I have enough space for a small patio table and chair that has provided a great change of scenery when I'm feeling cooped up. Now, I do work on a desktop computer, so I can't do all of my work outside, but I try to go out there as often as possible when I'm working on readings or using my tablet for school instead of my computer. The fresh air is so necessary, and the sunlight gives me some vitamin D while also raising my spirits. 4) Drink tea. While this isn't really a pandemic-specific hack, I found that a cup of tea serves as a great timer for working on schoolwork. I make a fresh cup of tea right before I start working, sip it throughout my study session, and take a break when I finish the cup. A cup will usually last me 30 minutes to an hour, and I typically take a few minutes to stretch and walk around before making another cup and starting the process over again. It is both relaxing and hydrating, and serves as my own little form of the pomodoro technique. So, there ya go. My little tips and "hacks" to make at-home studying or working just a little more bearable. While I definitely look forward to the day that I can study in public again, I have gotten more comfortable with my home set-up, and will continue with this routine while staying at home is the safest option. -
2020-06-03
Cops need to do ayahuasca
Image of a black man holding a sign saying "Cops need to do ayahuasca," referring to the recent protest over George Floyd, which has also sparked conversations about race worldwide. In Peru, social media accounts are posting memes, statements, and declarations against racism and the current situation in the U.S. -
2020-05-05
Colleague Care Package
I received a care package from a colleague in my field. It includes snacks, ibuprofen, toilet paper, a positive message, and a craft. -
2020-03-30
Reflection March 2020
A personal account of the pandemic.